Art Unleashed 2010

I've been happily painting away on my piece for Art Unleashed, a fundraising event for the Forsyth Humane Society. Artfully painted cats and dogs will be on display in downtown Winston-Salem during the summer and will be adopted at the auction gala later this year. This is their 3rd Art Unleashed and I have had the privilege of creating a piece for each event. New to the event this time will be the inclusion of other animal related works of art in addition to the sculptures.

Near and dear to my heart, FHS is where my beautiful Lucy came from...the inspiration for my last piece for them.

Stay tuned...more progress will come!

The White Heron

On Friday of last week I took a drive across the state to Dunn, NC to meet with the owner of the White Heron Gallery. Twice rescheduled due to snow, I was glad to finally make the trip! The gallery is a renovated two story 1930's house with great architectural details. (click on the link and then click on the white heron to see pictures) Still a work in progress, it is scheduled to open in just a few weeks. The owner, Adelaide, is an absolute delight...one of those people you feel like you've known forever. She is an incredible artist herself, and has a great vision for the gallery.

I'm pleased to announce that she will be carrying my work!

It SNOWED!

Here in Piedmont NC we rarely get snow. Ice, sometimes, but even that comes around only once in a while (thankfully, because it usually knocks out the power). Oh, but THIS year, we got SNOW! Not just once, but so far, twice! And not just the two-flakes-are-falling-quick-run-buy-bread-and-milk kind of snow, but honest-to-goodness-cover-the-ground-and-then-some kind of snow. Look at my driveway...Beautiful!!

(OK, I know my northern friends are experiencing SNOOOW, so this will not look like much. My heart goes out to you...some is good, but 2'+ is too much!! I used to live in the DC area and I can't imagine!)

Anyway, we had a blast sledding and watching the dogs romp about. We took a walk under the full moon which lit up the night, casting shadows of the trees. The boys even enjoyed an outdoor breakfast of hot cinnamon rolls and cocoa. And then...

I dyed.

I'll admit, when I first saw that technique in Quilting Arts I didn't give it much thought. Looked fun, but at the time it was published snow was not a consideration here. However, being inspired by those on the QA list who had tried it, I thought I might as well take advantage of this rare appearance here. And it was FUN!

I pre-soaked my scoured fabric in soda ash solution, then bunched it up in dishpan tubs, about a yard per tub. While the fabric was soaking I prepared my dyes (Procion). I like to use squirt bottles which I get at my local beauty supply store. Then I scooped up snow from the driveway, covering the fabric almost to the rim of the tubs and squirted the dye across the snow.

(I'm sure my neighbors were wondering...though they should be used to my driveway productions by now - rust dyeing, painting giant Hokie birds...)

I let it sit in the garage for a while, then moved it inside the studio so it could start melting...

Here it is all melted...pretty! I let it sit overnight to batch then did the rinse, repeat, and hot water / Synthrapol wash and....

TaaDaaa!

I'm thinking it might be OK if it snows again...just a little! :)